> Over the past five years I haven't had a single client who just had me "tell them what to do"
Okay, great: that means you're a contractor. In the past five years, all of my clients have told me, "Tell me what to do." (I'm a consultant.)
Okay, great: that means you're a contractor. In the past five years, all of my clients have told me, "Tell me what to do." (I'm a consultant.)
Rather, after we tell them what they should do, 99% of the time they respond with “okay that makes sense, can you give us an estimate for how much it would cost to have you guys do that? Because we don’t have the inhouse expertise for it”
Sometimes the answer to that follow up question would/should be: we don't do that, but we can help you evaluate and choose a vendor that does.
I'm sure what you describe fits your firm's experience, but it isn't indicative of the range of consulting experience.
I only tell them what to do. You can check out my site via my bio to learn more - I'm really explicit about that in my sample deliverables. My consulting engagements are purely read-only - I don't make any changes to their environments whatsoever.